Assistant Director of Music

Peter Dyke was born in Hertfordshire in 1965. In 1983 he took up the organ scholarship at the then newly-founded Robinson College, Cambridge, and he obtained his FRCO in 1987. He was organist of St Helen’s Church, Wheathampstead, for five years before being appointed assistant organist at St Woolos Cathedral, Newport, in 1992.

In 1995 he moved to St Albans Cathedral as organ scholar, and in 1998 he took up his current post as assistant organist of Hereford Cathedral, where he founded and directs the cathedral’s Voluntary Choir, known for its performances of contemporary choral repertoire. Under his direction, and with Douglas Tang at the organ, the choir gave the world premiere of Francis Pott's The Love of God is in Eternity at Choral Evensong on Sunday 22 July 2012 as part of that year's Hereford Three Choirs Festival.

Following the retirement of Dr Roy Massey in 2001 he was acting organist at the cathedral for a term before the arrival of Geraint Bowen.

Recitals and concert tours have taken him across Britain, Ireland, continental Europe and North America, and in 1993 he was awarded second prize in the interpretation competition at the prestigious St Albans International Organ Festival. His first solo CD, of music from Bach’s Clavierübung III, was released in 1997, and both this disc and Sounds Idyllic, recorded at Hereford Cathedral in 2002, have received much critical praise. A second disc of the Hereford organ, featuring music by Dyson and Darke as well as a transcription of Elgar's Enigma Variations, was recorded during 2009 by Priory Records and has received favourable reviews internationally. He has played regularly with the cathedral choir on radio and television broadcasts.

Peter has a keen interest in teaching, having founded a successful Organists’ Training Scheme in South Wales, and he has been closely involved in the similar scheme launched in the Hereford diocese in 2002. He has enjoyed transcribing orchestral and other works for the organ; these often feature in his lunchtime recitals in the cathedral. Occasionally he has time to compose; his Wedding Prelude was played at the wedding of Peter Philips and Autumn Kelly at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2008, and his Epiphany Carol, Three Kings, has been recorded by Hereford Cathedral Choir on its latest disc.

Recent appearances have included being the piano soloist in Hereford Choral Society’s performance of Constant Lambert’s The Rio Grande, several performances of his own transcription of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf for a total of over 2500 schoolchildren, complete performances of Messiaen’s La nativité du Seigneur at Hereford Cathedral and an appearance chairing an event with Christopher Hogwood at the 2009 Hay Festival. In 2005 he recorded a series of short programmes from Germany for BBC Radio 3 exploring Bach’s 260-mile journey to Lübeck in 1705, broadcast as part of that network’s highly successful A Bach Christmas. In 2009 he was awarded the Associateship of the Royal School of Church Music (ARSCM); this was presented in Durham Cathedral in 2010.